Jingle Bells Part II

To be fair to Josh, here's his version of Jingle Bells.
Merry Christmas everyone!!

Jingle Bells

Andrew learned how to sing Jingle Bells this year, and it's very cute!

Andrew loves to brush his teeth!!

Andrew is a kid that is quite aware of his dental hygiene. He's always the first to remind us that we need to brush our teeth...and this could be several times a day. We usually give him the kind of toothpaste you can swallow, but we've started to give Josh the kind you need to spit. Now Andrew thinks he needs to spit too, and it just cracks us up! He used to not be able to do it and would make this funny noise instead, but now he's getting better.

Rainy yucky afternoon with no nap

Today the weather has been yucky, and Andrew decided he was too big for a nap. About 3:30 I was going crazy so I decided to get out some paint. Of course with it being Christmas, I got out red and green paint. The most important lesson we learned from this project was that red and green paint make black (really dark purple...but the kids called it black) paint. They thought it was great fun to paint candy canes and gingerbread men black. And I was thinking that I could cut these out and hang them around the house...now that they're black, I think we'll call it good with just the painting experience and ditch the need to display them.

Mission Impossible: Teaching a Three Year Old to Keep Secrets

Every year I usually take Josh and Andrew with me to do my Christmas shopping for Darrin. I don't really enjoy taking them, but I'm a mom and that's just what mom's do. It's always worked out fine, but NOT this year. When I pick something out for Darrin I explain to Josh that it's a secret and we can't tell daddy what we bought. Well, Darrin comes home from work and immediately tells Darrin what we bought him and (whispering) says, "shhhh, it's a secret." Darrin knows just about all the presents that we've bought him. I just can't get Josh to understand that if it's a secret you don't tell anyone...Maybe next year if Darrin doesn't want to know what he's getting from me, he'll send me out on my own without the kids!!

Ultrasound Results....

IT'S A BOY!!!

Here's how it all went down....

We got in the room and the tech started the ultrasound. She promptly told us that it was a boy. Being a mom of two boys, I've learned what a boy "looks" like on an ultrasound, and I totally didn't see where she got boy from. We finished the rest of the ultrasound, and she was about to send us on our merry way...but I just couldn't believe it was a boy unless I saw it for myself...so I asked her to go back and show me the "boy part" and print off a picture of it. She did so, and now I know it is a boy! Darrin has been smiling all day, I'm excited...having three boys will be fun. I just want to get a girl sometime...We'll have to try again! But for right now I couldn't be happier!

My little stinker

I was working away on the computer while the kids were watching a movie. I wasn't really paying too much attention to what they were doing. I walked into the kitchen to make dinner and this is what I found.... a clothespin...
a open bag of chips that no long had a clothespin on it....
a open dishwasher with a bowl missing from it....
a bowl full of chips sitting next to a little boy....
And a little boy eating those chips on the couch in the family room....which by the way, eating at our house is to be done at the table in the kitchen...and I KNOW he knows this rule. I guess he was hungry and knew if he asked I'd say "no" because it was almost dinner time. That's my little stinker!!

Family Home Evening

Tonight for Family Home Evening we built a gingerbread train. Josh and Andrew's favorite part was definitely the frosting. They licked and licked frosting until I thought they were going to be sick. It went against everything I believe in to let them eat that much frosting, but I was trying to let them make some Christmas memories. That makes it okay, right??


Needless to say, they both took a bath when they were all done!

Ultrasound

Start the count down everyone!! I scheduled my mid-pregnancy ultrasound for December 12th at 10:20am. We will soon find out the gender of our new baby. Please vote on the poll and let us know what you think it's going to be!

Deck the Halls

Today we put up the Christmas tree. Josh loved sorting the branches by their letters.
Andrew was fascinated with the lights.
And laid down under the tree to read a book!
Josh loved to hang the ornaments on. We had to monitor where he put them...he liked hanging about 5 balls on one branch. He did a great job though! Now we can't get Andrew to leave the ornaments alone!!

Pregnancy Update

Today I am 16 weeks pregnant. I can't believe how fast its gone. For the most part the nausea and constant exhaustion have subsided. I can still fit in my jeans, and I'm not really showing much. I haven't felt the baby move, but I'm expecting to any day now. We went to get an ultrasound a couple weeks ago and this is one of the pictures. It was too early to tell if the baby is a girl or a boy, but hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll find out. The kids know about the baby now. I think Josh understands the concept pretty well. Although at first he commented that he didn't want to go back in my tummy. I assured him that wouldn't happen and ever since then he's seemed fine with the whole thing. And if you ask him if it's a girl or a boy, he says boy! Andrew, though, if you try to tell him there's a baby in mommy's tummy lifts up my shirt and shakes his head saying "no baby, no baby." Boy will he be in for a surprise! I haven't been craving too many things yet, but I still have a couple of food aversions from when I sick.

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a fun birthday on Saturday. I slept in, didn't change any diapers, and went on a date with my sweet husband. We went to P. F. Changs while my mom watched the kids. It was sooo good and hit the spot to my pregnant belly. Darrin gave me a new camera which is what I wanted, so I was excited about that! Thanks everyone for the phone calls, cards, and gifts! I'm now 26 and on the down hill slope to 30!! Ahh!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I do have to apologize for my blog hiatus. My kids got sick last week...they both had the croup. There were many sleepless nights and days filled with high maintenance kids. Also last week Darrin's grandfather passed away so he left early this week to attend the funeral leaving us to manage mostly on our own. My sister did come in from Rexburg Sunday night to keep us company. Anyway, enough excuses...I vow to do better at updating my blog!

We had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. My whole family was able to come from Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho to visit. We had lots of fun, food, and made lots of family memories! The Wii was a big hit and several records were broken. Here's a picture of all the delicious food we had for Thanksgiving....
Here's a picture of what Josh ate for Thanksgiving....Cheetos! He didn't eat one bit of Thanksgiving. Picky boy!
We took a family picture while everyone was around. Here's the one we liked the best. Thanks everyone for making this weekend a fun and memorable one!

Halloween

In all my excitement to announce the pregnancy, I totally spaced Halloween. The kids were pretty shy about the whole thing. Josh refused to talk to anyone, and Andrew usually hid behind anything he could find. Needless to say, we didn't go to very many houses. They were quite pleased with their candy and for several days after, Andrew wanted candy for breakfast! After we went trick or treating, we went to a Halloween party and enjoyed seeing lots of people from our old ward! Josh and Andrew with their pumpkins
All ready to go! Show me the candy!

5 reasons to buy a mini van

5. The geo won't last much longer.
4. So we can go camping and not have to put half of our stuff in our friends Explorer!
3. So when we pick up the missionaries for dinner we don't have to take out a car seat.
2. So we can buy big pieces of furniture and not have to borrow someone's van.
1. May 12th we will have 3 kids, and we can't fit three car seats in our Focus!!








Yes, that's right....we are pregnant!! I'm currently 13 weeks and starting to feel really good! I wasn't as sick this time so I'm hoping it's a girl!! I got to hear the heart beat today, and it was good and strong!

Sick as Dogs

Well, we are all sick as dogs at our house. Andrew came down with a runny nose on Wednesday, I came down with a wicked cold on Friday, and Darrin woke up with a form of a cold on Saturday. I've just been waiting for Josh to catch a cold too...but today at church we picked him up from nursery, and he puked all over the foyer. (So, sorry if we infected anyone else's kids.) I've never seen people leave church so fast....that was kind of funny! So we spent the next 30 minutes cleaning that up. He barfed again, but luckily we were outside and so I just took him over to the bushes! That made for easier clean up...anyway, we are a pretty sad story over here. All voluntary meals, cookies, and general housekeeping will be accepted!

Trunk or Treat

Yesterday was our ward trunk or treat. We carved the boys little pumpkins so we could actually have something to decorate our car with. The boys had a great time getting dressed up, but as for the trick or treating part...they were pretty shy about it. They didn't want to talk to anyone or look at anything just a little bit scary. Oh-well, there's hope for them, right?

We're going on a leaf hunt

We're going on a leaf hunt.
We're going right away.
Let's find colorful leaves.
It's a wonderful day!

Today we went to find leaves at the park behind the library. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time running around outside. We also had a picnic lunch and fed the ducks!

Pumpkin Patch

Mom and Josh on the train.
Cute boys
In a world of pumpkins
This is the pumpkin Andrew insisted on getting!

Yesterday we took advantage of the gorgeous, sunny day and went to the pumpkin patch. We went to our favorite patch in the area: Lakeview Farms. They have a train and a boat that takes you to and from the pumpkin patch. The kids were both excited with the mission of finding the perfect little pumpkin for them. Andrew picked out a cute little green one...and Josh found one with a stem perfect for carrying. After we picked our pumpkins we enjoyed apple cider and popcorn. All in all, we had a great time!!

Getting crafty with the season

For some reason this time of year gives me the craft bug! So yesterday was Andrew's second day in a row of not taking a nap so I decided to head for JoAnn's to pick up some craft supplies. I found these pumpkins on www.familyfun.com and thought they would be the perfect, simple craft I was in the mood for. The kids helped me pick out the faces and "helped" me cut them out. Josh ultimately loved how I turned them in the girls by putting "hair" on them! I've realized having 2 kids that don't take naps can have it's advantages...but at this point I'd rather have the nap! Luckily, today Andrew decided he couldn't resist a nap and went down without a fight. Hopefully they last for another 6 months! Anyway~happy fall!

Cool Boys

Gangsta Andy!
Jam Master Josh

New Computer

Darrin's new computer he built. We are finally putting some images on the blog.

It looks best in the dark.

A side view.

All in all it is a pretty nice looking computer with a lot of power inside. Darrin especially likes all the blue LEDs.

Specs:

• Intel Core 2 Quad (of course)


• 2 GB DDR2 800 RAM


• Nvidia 8600 GT 256 MB DDR3


• 500 GB SATA Hard Drive


• Asus P5K-E motherboard (the free one blew up)
  

More fun with Photoshop

Scary Josh!

Just trying to show off the photoshop skills like Angela.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Today was Andrew's 2nd birthday. We started off the day opening one present...then Andrew got soooo hungry he couldn't wait anymore to eat breakfast....so we put the rest of the presents on hold until after breakfast. After a wonderful pancake breakfast he opened the rest of his presents. He got to be pretty good at opening!...of course, he had lots of help from his big brother! We went to Panda Express for lunch, let him skip his nap...not our choice, and then went to a friends house for dinner and cake! He did a great job at attempting to blow out the candles, but while we were all singing he got really shy and didn't like all the attention. Anyway, hope you had a great birthday AnDrEw!!